Fayette County, GA Animal Ordinances: Microchipping (2026)

The county code treats a microchip as one identification option among several, not a mandate. Section 6-19's definitions article describes a "microchip implant" only as an identifying integrated circuit placed under the skin, alongside rabies tags and license tags, without imposing any duty to chip a pet. The chip's legal significance surfaces later, in § 6-26, the notice-to-owners provision. When the director impounds an animal, he must first attempt to locate the owner; if verbal contact fails, a notice letter goes out, and the animal can be adopted out or humanely disposed of if unclaimed five days after impoundment, or three days after the letter is received.

Section 6-26(e) then closes the loop: if the animal is never claimed but the owner can be traced through a rabies tag, license tag or microchip implant, or identified by witnesses, that owner is treated as having abandoned the animal, a separate misdemeanor under the article. Owners who are contacted, whether through a chip trace or otherwise, remain on the hook for boarding and other fees under § 6-31 before reclaiming the animal, and § 6-26(d) requires proof of a current rabies vaccination within seven days of an impoundment notice regardless of how the animal was identified.